13Feb15

New issue of 'Dabiq' features interview with widow of Paris gunman

The Islamic State released the seventh issue of its English-language
magazine, Dabiq, this week. This issue includes an interview with Hayat
Boumediene, the girlfriend of Amedy Coulibaly, the jihadist who killed a
policewoman and attacked a kosher market in eastern Paris on Jan. 9.

Coulibaly launched the assault two days following the attacks on French
satirical magazine, Charlie Hebdo. Before he was killed by the police,
Coulibaly told a French television channel that he had been working with the
Kouachi brothers, who assaulted the Charlie Hebdo offices.

The interview, presented in a question and answer format, begins with a brief
introduction explaining that Coulibaly sent Boumediene to Syria prior to
carrying out the Paris attack. The magazine refers to Boumediene as Umm
Basir al Muhajirah, which translates to "mother of the discerning, the
immigrant." Because Boumediene is a woman, the jihadist group will not show
her picture and the magazine uses a photograph of Coulibaly instead.

Coulibaly, who pledged allegiance to the Islamic State in a video, was killed
when police stormed the deli. In the Islamic State's release, Boumediene
notes that prior to his death, Coulibaly asked her not to show him Islamic
State videos because "it would make him want to perform hijrah immediately
and that would have conflicted with his intent to carry out the operations in
France." Hijrah refers to the migration of jihadists to the Islamic State's
'caliphate.'

Boumediene encourages her "sisters" to "be bases of support and safety for
your husbands, brothers, fathers and sons." She also states that women
should learn their religion and read the Quran. "It is essential for you to love
Allah and His Messenger more than your own selves, your husbands, your
children, and your parents," she says.

Boumediene's emphasis on the need for women to study the Quran echoes
the manifesto recently released by the Islamic State's all-female al-Khans'aa
Brigade, in which the author(s) stresses the importance for women to study
religion and Islamic history. In the interview, Boumediene expresses her
happiness with living in Syria, stating, "living in a land where the law of Allah
is implemented is something great." Similarly, the manifesto also praises living
under Shariah law in the 'caliphate.'

According to the BBC, Turkish authorities said Boumediene arrived in Turkey
prior to the Paris attacks and crossed into Syria on January 8, one day before
Coulibaly attacked the kosher market in Paris. French authorities say
Boumediene exchanged over 500 phone calls with the wife of one of the
Charlie Hebdo gunmen, Cherif Kouachi, in 2014. Boumediene was known to
French authorities for her links to Islamic extremists, according to multiple
press reports.

Cherif and Said Koauchi reportedly had ties to al Qaeda in the Arabian
Peninsula (AQAP). Before he was killed by the police in a printing factory,
Cherif Kouachi claimed he had been sent to carry out the attacks by al Qaeda
in Yemen, and that he went to Yemen on a trip funded by Anwar al-Awlaki,
according to CNN. Said Kouachi also reportedly met with Awlaki on a trip to
Yemen in 2011.

AQAP claimed responsibility for the Charlie Hebdo attacks last month through
a speech by senior official Nasser bin Ali al Ansi. In the speech, al Ansi states
that the "emir of the operation" worked with Awlaki.

[Source: By Mallory Shelbourne, The Long War Journal, NJ, 13Feb15]

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